The Air Route Development Committee (CDRA) - an entity formed by Aena, the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and the Cambra - has launched the new Barcelona airport plan for the period 2024-2025 with the aim of recovering the number of long-haul passengers prior to the pandemic and add new intercontinental destinations.
The strategy has been designed apart from the possible expansion of the infrastructure, currently in the study phase in the technical commission that the central and Catalan governments activated last month and which has committed to finding a solution for El Prat by end of the year.
Any agreement between governments on the future of the airport and the promotion of intercontinental flights will take years to be executed, so the Committee works with goals that fit into the current operational capacity of El Prat. “The current infrastructure supports this strategic route plan,” remarked the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure of the Department of Territory, Marc Sanglas, who also serves as president of the CDRA.
Sanglas has avoided assessing the alternatives to increase the capacity of long flights in Barcelona, but has insisted that the debate is not framed in “yes or no expansion”. The Government of the Generalitat always tries to avoid the word expansion, and in fact the Secretary of Mobility has stressed that the commission does not include this objective: "there is talk of improving El Prat, there are many parameters to take into account."
For this new period and without the possibility of increasing operational capacity significantly, the CDRA has proposed recovering the number of direct intercontinental passengers that was reached in 2019. That year 3.71 million long-haul passengers flew directly , a figure that is expected to be achieved in 2025. Last year El Prat added 3.2 million intercontinental passengers. In total, counting both direct and indirect passengers - who make stopovers - Barcelona reached 8.73 million long-haul travelers (7.64 in 2023).
In terms of destinations, El Prat already exceeds those of 2019, with 50 intercontinental routes throughout the year compared to 47 five years ago. However, the frequencies are now lower, with 276 intercontinental flights per week at the end of 2023, when in 2019 there were 304 flights.
Gaining more destinations and frequencies is among the priorities, agreed this Tuesday Sanglas, Eva Valenzuela, director of the Barcelona airport, Pau Solanilla, commissioner of international relations of the City Council, and Josep Santacreu, president of the Chamber of Commerce, during the presentation of the plan in the Llotja de Mar.
Apart from consolidating and reinforcing current routes, the CDRA has identified 40 strategic destinations due to their relevance in terms of competitiveness and international influence that they would like to incorporate into the airport. Of these, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Lima, Delhi and Tokyo are the priorities. In fact, the flight with Hong Kong will be activated in June with the airline Cathay. Regarding the rest, there are no details yet and we will work on a promotion plan to try to add them to Barcelona's connectivity.
The director of El Prat has announced that in 2024 they already hope to reach the pre-covid total passenger numbers. In 2019, the airport reached its maximum capacity, estimated at 55 million travelers. “The trend is positive,” said Valenzuela. Santacreu has highlighted the importance of having good international connectivity for the economic development of Barcelona and has reaffirmed the Chamber's support for an expansion of the airport.
